Squabble
by krystalhoshi
Summary: In which young Aphrodi and Hera have a petty squabble. one-shot.


**A/N: Headcanon that Aphrodi and Hera were childhood friends. I don't really have anything else to say about this, so I hope you enjoy!**

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Afuro giggled as he scurried away from Hera's bag, the only pen that Hera had amongst thousands of pencils gripped tightly in his hand. Hera was away in the toilet, and getting bored while waiting for him, Afuro had decided to play a prank on his friend. Quickly, Afuro ran away from their playroom and into his bedroom, crawling under his bed and putting the pen in a small box he kept there for the random things he found around the house that he pronounced his treasures. Safely stored in the box with Hera's pen were a particularly shiny coin probably belonging to one of his parents that Afuro had found on a table, a nicely smoothed pebble that he'd found in the garden and an empty snail shell (Afuro didn't even want to think about what had happened to the snail shell's occupant) that Afuro had also found in the garden.

Just as he withdrew from the shelter of his bed, Afuro heard Hera calling for him from outside. Afuro trotted over to the door and cracked it open slightly, feeling extremely proud of what he'd done as he peeked out of the room. There was his Hera nii-chan, looking around outside of the playroom for Afuro, completely oblivious to what Afuro had done. Once Hera turned his back to the direction Afuro was in, Afuro quickly scooted up behind him and promptly jumped onto his back, laughing when Hera gave a small cry in surprise. Afuro dropped down onto the ground, still continuing to laugh excitedly while Hera simply chuckled at the small surprise.

The two of them played together for a little while longer in the playroom, the laughter from the two children seeming to echo through this rather quiet area of Afuro's relatively large house. As they took a rest from playing, Hera proudly proclaimed to Afuro that he had recently learnt how to write a few words, one of which was his name, from his mother. Afuro's eyes sparkled in delight at the exciting news, immediately asking Hera to show him as he got up from his seat on the floor to trot over to a corner of the room, pulling out a sheet of paper from a small stack that was kept around for Afuro to doodle on. Seeing that Afuro had gotten the paper, Hera got up as well and walked over to his bag, thinking that it was a good time to show off his new pen to Afuro again along with the words he had learnt. However, Hera got a bad shock as he couldn't find his pen where he had put it earlier after showing it to Afuro, and try as he did to find it in his bag, he couldn't find the pen no matter which compartment he rummaged in.

Afuro sat on the carpet that was placed in the middle of the room, tilting his head in curiosity as he watched Hera turn his bag upside down looking for something. He giggled softly when he realised that Hera was looking for the pen that Afuro had hid in his little box.

"Hera nii-chan, is something missing?" Afuro called out to Hera, giving Hera an innocent smile when he turned to face Afuro with a suspicious expression on his face. Hera sighed exasperatedly, figuring out right away that Afuro had taken his precious new (and only) pen.

"Where did you hide it, Afuro?" Hera replied, his expression showing clearly that he was not the least bit amused by Afuro's antics. Hera had had to bug his mother and father for a really long time to let him have a pen, and he had been made to promise not to draw on the walls or on the floor at home, as he usually did, using the pen since there was no way to erase the markings except for repainting the walls if that happened.

Afuro simply laughed at Hera's expression. "Teru isn't going to tell nii-chan! Nii-chan should find his pen through his own effort!" he taunted his friend, giggling at Hera's dumbfounded expression, though his smile faded a little when he saw Hera's expression turn close to furious. He swallowed nervously and watched with wide eyes when Hera suddenly turned and stormed out of the room. "H- Hera nii-chan?" he called out, quickly getting up and running out of the room after Hera. Had he gone too far with his prank?

As Afuro left the room, he caught sight of Hera going into his room. Quickly, he ran over to the entrance to his room, and gasped in horror as he saw Hera clutching his precious ceramic fortune kitty figure in his hands. Hera looked up at Afuro as he rushed in, looking completely different from the Hera nii-chan that Afuro was familiar with without his cheerful smile in place, said smile having been replaced by an angry expression. The two stared at each other for a while, the tension seeming to rise with every passing second. Suddenly, Afuro realised with a jolt why Hera had his precious ceramic fortune kitty in his hands.

"N- Nii-chan…" he started in horror, his eyes widening while Hera's expression showed no change. Afuro was absolutely certain what Hera was about to do. "N- Nii-chan can't break Teru's fortune kitty! Nii-chan wouldn't break Teru's fortune kitty! Teru loves his fortune kitty!"

Hera stared at Afuro, his expression still showing no change as he looked back down at the fortune cat in his hands. He knew how precious the fortune cat figure was to Afuro, but that pen was equally precious to Hera. Just as he was about to throw the figure onto the ground, he heard muffled sobs coming from the direction of the entrance of the room. Surprised, he looked up, and his eyes widened as he was met with the sight of tears dripping down Afuro's cheeks.

"Nii-chan wouldn't… Nii-chan wouldn't…!" Afuro sobbed in his place, wiping away the tears that dripped down using his hands. However, the tears didn't seem to stop as he continued to cry. Hera felt a stab of guilt as he watched his friend cry. Maybe he'd been too hard on him? It had been just an act of playfulness, after all, that Afuro had taken and hidden away his pen. Hera was also the older one out of the two, he couldn't do something as childish and petty as this! He had to act as a good role model for Afuro!

Quickly, he put the fortune cat figure back where he had taken it from and walked over to where Afuro stood crying. Once he was close enough to Afuro, Hera wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. Afuro's tears soaked Hera's shirt as he cried out the scare he got from Hera almost breaking his precious fortune kitty.

"Hera nii-chan's sorry," Hera sighed out, adopting Afuro's way of speaking, not liking to apologise at all since technically Afuro was the one who started it all in the first place, but there was no helping it. "But that pen is very precious to Hera nii-chan, so can Terumin please return it?"

Tucked into Hera's tight embrace and being called by the affectionate nickname that Hera sometimes referred to him as, Afuro's sobs soon stopped, and he stepped away from Hera, his small frame shaking every now and then as he hiccupped from crying. Quietly, he walked over to his bed and crawled under it, retrieving the pen from his little box before walking back over to Hera and placing the pen in his hand before wrapping his arms around Hera and clinging tightly to him. Hera sighed, glad that their small and rather stupid argument was over.

Afuro looked up at Hera, his eyes red from crying as he pouted and dragged Hera over to the bed. "Hera nii-chan has to take a nap with Teru to make up!" he said, jumping up to sit on the bed, looking at Hera with a defiant expression. Hera sighed, putting the pen next to the fortune cat before climbing onto the bed next to Afuro, falling backward to lie down on the bed. Afuro seemed to squeak excitedly as Hera lay down, scooting over next to him and snuggling close.

"Teru's sorry for taking Hera nii-chan's pen…" Afuro whispered quietly, his voice sleepy as he was just about to fall asleep.

Hera sighed and leaned forward to place a sweet kiss on Afuro's forehead. "I know. Now go to sleep."

Their breathing soon evened out, and the two slept peacefully next to each other for a little while.


End file.
